Unai Emery is like one of those rich billionaire folk that falls off a boat in a hooker accident. The family are waiting for the major payouts only to find out the whole wealth game is a fucking charade.
Arsenal sit 19th in the league for pressing, almost twice as ineffective as the leaders (Leicester I think).
Data via @UtdArena
Data:
- 8.30 – Manchester United (3rd)
- 8.38 – Liverpool (4th)
- 8.72 – Manchester City (5th)
- 10.20 – Tottenham (9th)
- 10.39 – Chelsea (10th)
- 14.71 – Arsenal (19th)
That is some stat. But what does it mean? It’s hard to know, because really, what does Emery mean in general? Who is he? What does he stand for?
Some rumours are doing the rounds that the players say he doesn’t coach the press in training. Why would you take that approach in the Premier League? I thought he was a drill sergeant?
Could be worse though, he could be asking the players to press, but they’re not listening.
Whatever the deal, we’re absolutely awful without the ball moving forward and when we defend. Our transitions from deep, which you’d imagine he is coaching, are horrible, the players don’t know where to stand to create passing channels.
Sky Sports also ran a horrific set of numbers.
That is since Emery took over. Rumours are that the internal numbers the club has are even more depressing.
Fans went from, ‘give him time, it’ll come round’, to, ‘FUCK PULL THE RIPCORD WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE.’
Truth is, we’re somewhere in the middle. We might not die, but it’s looking increasingly likely we’re going to sprain an ankle out here if he doesn’t stop the rot soon.
Thing is, none of this is new. It’s been happening since our 22 game unbeaten run when we ignored our eyes because, you know, victories do that to a man/woman/child. I think it’s fair to say that we all wanted to believe as well. We used to do it under Wenger, we’d win ugly 9 times in a row and convince us that the shitty underlying performances were ‘exactly what we’ve been missing’, then the correction would land.
There is a familiar tipping point for nearly all Arsenal fans: Xhaka.
As Aash said on the podcast, the saddest indictment of the weekend was listening to OUR CAPTAIN tell the press that Arsenal were scared. That is an abomination. You can’t read that in a postive light. There are serious issues on the pitch, but even bigger ones off it if that’s an acceptable line to roll out to 100m people. Unai Emery told us last season he wouldn’t let players behave like cowards… a year on, it’s looking like that’s par the course when the going gets tough.
Auba was caught leaving a club at 3am looking very dazed.
I don’t blame him.
His goals should have us top of the league. If our pragmatic manager was good enough to, you know, park a bus properly, we could feed off his elite finishing all the way to fourth. But things are so bad, we can’t even stop the flow of shots with 3 holding midfielders in the team.
I repeat: We can’t park a bus.
The odds on Emery leaving before Christmas are increasing. I was told it was unlikely, but I can’t see Arsenal sitting on their hands if things don’t improve drastically.
It’s interesting to strategise what the club does. I think Freddie would be tempting based on what Chelsea have done, but please, look at what Chelsea have done. I don’t think you can let Freddie pick up December misery. That’d be like throwing on a kid to chase a game in which you are being beasted. Lots of fans talking about Jose, I’ve flirted, but I have my sensible hat back on and it’d be a disaster. He’s toxic, he’d make it all about him, and I don’t think players care for him anymore. He’s mean and he’s been a disgrace to Arsenal over the years. I think the smarted move would be Allegri. An elite Sam Allardyce. Strengthen the defensive structure of the team and create a system that can feed our finishers. The saucy Italian is out of a job, it’d make a lot of sense. Let me know what you’d do should the best worst happen.
We have Frankfurt away from home on Thursday. The season isn’t over. We can use that competition to inject a bit of form into the legs. Well, not with the first team, that should be a reserves exhibition. Still, any victory would be an exciting one for me at the moment.
A performance is needed, I’ll talk more about what that looks like tomorrow.
See you in the comments. x
‘Call Emery a pragmatist, but his playing from the back is Wenger like idealistic’
Emery if far from being idealistic, he just looks across at Pep and think playing from the back gives Pep so much success. He’s trying to grab some success by using that playing style too. But now that it’s blown in his face we will see where he goes from there.
Emery is not a defensive coach, so we should not expect him to improve our defense.
Emery realizes we can’t press as a team, so we should be game with our players backing off and off and letting teams fighting relegation have 30 shots at us.
Emery for sure can’t play mesmerizing attacking football which is evident from our abysmal XG and XA stats in the last 15 months.
What should Emery be paid for then ?
“N5 I do not work in a post office I don’t know where it came from. I have a boring office job like yourself.”
Cheeky sod, didn’t you hear about my James Bond like antics and also I’m Batman!! I don’t work in IT for Universal Credit! 😀
“It’s still possible that the next manager of Arsenal will inherit a team that is in the Champions League and not the Europa League so I’d imagine the next guy at the very least will be thankful for that.“ That’s a big if. It’s also not particularly relevant to the managing foundation the next guy will be left with. If Wenger has gotten 4th in his final season I very much doubt you’d have been saying hats off the bloke for leaving the next guys with such a grounded and organised team to take forward. Emery can finish 3rd (I… Read more »
‘What should Emery be paid for then ?’
Emery protects our best players from hot afternoons by taking them off from games. I think he sufficiently earns his £6m p/a just by doing that very effectively.
Playing from the back will never work for :”us”
It will never work.
Leno needs to boot the ball as far away from our lame defense as possible. At least that allows a few seconds to re organize ourselves.
As soon as we panic at the back, its spreads like a virus to the rest of the team.
Panic panic
Hopefully Freddy speaks to Emery about this shit. Edu, Raul etc.
All the hard work over the summer needs to pay off.
“What should Emery be paid for then?”
How about for finishing one point behind the champions league places last season, when the season previous it was around 12 points.
No one apart from stat nerds dweebs without a clue about football care about XG.
Oh I forgot, we have Aubameyang and Lacazette – the two greatest strikers in the history of football.
We don’t need a manager with those two in the squad. A cardboard cut out of Allegri/Nagelsmann will do.
Paulinho
Both are much batter than Ramsey
Don – Where were they against Leicester and Chelsea in May, without Ramsey running the show.
Worked a treat didn’t they? 🙂
Really?
Really?
They’ve given it to Istanbul again? Fucking disgusting
Nobody wants it. Nobody
Nobody wants their son or daughter to travel there
Why hold it there? Fat European wankers detached from realities
Nobody in Europe wants another Istanbul final
Nobody
Except Turks
Nobody
Paulinho, one of the reasons Liverpool pressed ahead with Klopp was because their analysts ran an xG over the season he tanked and assessed that he was outrageously unlucky.
Football clubs pay attention to numbers, and make no mistake, Arsenal are looking at the terrible underlying numbers when it comes to Emery.
Pedro,
What are they going to do about these terrible numbers?
‘How about for finishing one point behind the champions league places last season, when the season previous it was around 12 points.’
The season previous to the last season was an aberration. It’s not that we played well last season, just that the season prior to the last one was a disastrous one by all accounts. Besides we raked up more poijte1 than we deserved to , winning and drawing games we didn’t deserve to. This season will prove the fact we did not improve as a team last season.
Pedro – Right, but it’s not as if they unearthed some unknown. He did very well
(in terms of trophies/league standings) before that season, and even after that one poor season (results wise) every club would’ve taken him.
TR7 – Yep, it wouldn’t be a huge shock because we’ve lost a lot of players without replacing adequately so the squad hasn’t really improved.
Paulinho
“How about for finishing one point behind the Champions League places last season, when the season previous it was around 12 points?”
And let’s note that he finished 1 point behind Tottenham and 2 points behind Chelsea — two teams that had much better players than he had at his disposal last season.
As I said yesterday, he might be looking a little out of his depth at the moment, but that doesn’t mean that he did a poor job last season or that all of the criticisms leveled at him here have been fair, reasonable or accurate.
Hopefully we see a pairing of Holding and Chambers tomorrow and see how they fare as our two CBs.
Ozil is not traveling to Germany. I was waiting to see how the German fans treating Ozil.
Bamford, Emery was always out of his depth, it’s just that good results masked his weaknesses somewhat last season. That as per Paulinho it still all boils down to players even after 15 months of him being in charge proves that he has not developed any system or inculcated any quality training regime that is insulated from quality of players.
Bamford – Still can’t believe Garcia got sacked from Watford, and the Watford fan talking in favour of it on some BT Sport program was one of the doziest fuckers I’ve ever had the misfortune to listen to. His whole spiel was that Flores was better defensively, yet I’m sure they were conceding plenty when he got sacked by Watford three years ago.
If he can get sacked then Emery won’t be far behind him at a club with much higher expectations. Fans will get their wish soon methinks.
TR7 – Right, so tactics and philosophy exist in a vacuum.
Kane is at it again. Expert in getting penalty.
Ozil and Sokratis not in the party to Germany…
Would be nice to know why.
Azed, I’m not sure Ozil is welcome over there and you know how much we coddle our players!!
Paulinho You know it very well that there are some football managers who instill certain qualities in their teams no matter who the players are and these qualities become trademark of their management. You talk about softness of Pep’s teams in CL , doesn’t matter whether he manages Bayern, City or any other team, that softness always comes to the fore. Similarly good build up play is a characteristics of Pep’s team. Tomorrow if he manages a relatively less talented team compared to the ones he has managed so far in his career, you will still get to see his… Read more »
N5
I give up..
Pedro In all humility, let me give you tip: look upstairs for source of AFC’s problems. No leadership, no unity, no effort, no motivation (I am generalizing, there are a few motivated pair of legs on the field), no strategy, inconsistent tactics, poor concentration, etc. on the field = no consistent high performance. Fifteen months into the new regime at AFC, one should expect green sprouts of the new strategy to emerge on different levels of the club. I see none. People have gone, new staff was appointed but on the field it’s the same old schlep. Mightily annoying to… Read more »
‘And let’s note that he finished 1 point behind Tottenham and 2 points behind Chelsea — two teams that had much better players than he had at his disposal last season.’
And to think Wenger didn’t get such praise when he finished above ManC, Liverpool, Chelsea, ManU, Spuds and finished second in 15/16.
Or shall we just say we had a team better than all those teams?
People are still yapping about Stan?
After the reasonable summer transfer window, it’;s clear that our recruitment has improved and a new technical director is still settling in.
Stan is not the reason why we are playing the back like slugs and David Luiz can’t stop giving away cheap penalties.
TR7 – That’s a fair point about Pep. I’ve said the same about his teams as well. However he is a relative rarity because his possession philosophy is so extreme that there can’t not be some downside. Mourinho’s teams had that cynical edge but they had great quality, and without the quality the cynical edge didn’t mean much. He had Ozil in Madrid and his softness as a player killed against sides like Dortmund. Until then, he didn’t really need to accomodate a star player so soft, mentally and physically, and it showed. The vast majority of managers (Van Gaal,… Read more »
Paulinho
“Yep, it wouldn’t be a huge shock because we’ve lost a lot of players without replacing adequately so the squad hasn’t really improved.”
Ceballos in, Ramsey out is an area of improvement, that’s for sure.
Ceballos , a team player, who plays with discipline , superb technique and intelligence.
Ramsey has to be commended though, for the man marking job he done on jorginho in the home game v Chelsea
Lol I’ve forgot that we play at Frankfurt tomorrow!!
Omg it’s gonna be fucking ugly…. not even sure I’m gonna watch that carnage.
Paulinho
You always stressed upon the point that under Wenger we played with trepidation at Anfield, WHL etc. So was that down to our personnel or was it a characteristics of Wenger’s management ? Correct me If I wrong but you always pinned it on the soft underbelly of the team under Wenger and linked it to our lack of mental strength.
“And let’s note that he finished 1 point behind Tottenham and 2 points behind Chelsea — two teams that had much better players than he had at his disposal last season.“ Spurs never bought a player in the summer and half their squad went to the latter stages of the World Cup finals, they also sold Moussa Dembele who was absolutely brilliant for them, got to the CL final, and by their own recent standards had a pretty shite PL campaign losing about 1000 games – and still beat us to 4th. Chelsea played the whole season without a striker… Read more »
I’m a bit surprised how suddenly Bellerin is being touted on this platform as the solution to our defensive problems. Yes, he is effective on the flanks, but bombs forward and forgets to track back in time. We have conceded a lot of goals because of this poor timing of his. Can someone tell me if the quality of players Watford have is better than ours? Emery is clueless, a fish out of water, period.!
I hope the club are looking at the numbers and putting a plan in place. We are so bland at the moment, I’ve gone from looking forward to the season to back to thinking “not this again” Seeing some of our new signings click and the youngsters step up is one massive interest for a lot of people. 5 games in and yet to really be wowed by us. So much for the positive summer. I’ve always thought the players cannot understand the point emery wants, he looks scared himself on what he wants. Is Leicester, wolves can play high… Read more »
All this debate about Emery’s ability as a manager is pointless. Circumstance far outweighs ability in most instances in life. It’s no different for him currently. It’s fair to say Emery has worked with a limited squad that has even further been depleted by injury. It’s also fair to say that there’s been little to no improvement even with the fit players or the overall play of the team since last summer, and that he’s made some tactically questionable decisions to put it mildly. Trying to be as objective as possible, but I think my biggest confusion is why, if… Read more »
Pierre – I also think Ozil also needs to be commended for not taking himself to A & E after the Watford match. TR7 – I will correct you because you are wrong. What I said about Arsenal and Anfield proves my point. When we went there in 07/08 – twice – with Hleb playing instead of Arshavin – we absolutely outclassed them and dominated them in both matches. We didn’t win either, but we actually saw quality football lived up that cringeful term “Wengerball’. The next season we turned up there with Arshavin instead of Hleb, and he had… Read more »
Bellerin being touted as a massive factor , because before he was injured our play depended very much on the overlapping fullbacks for width; seemingly one of our major attacking factors.
Best form of defence in emery’s eyes is probably attack – who knows.
He’ll only change the set up and system again on Thursday…..
Emery worries more about the opposition than getting us to play a way for us to master.
Klopp for example will take an ill-suited/poor side, and might make them look half-decent in terms of gegenpressing for a while, and people will remark on his philosophy, but then around the hour mark they will blow up physically and just implode.
That’s what happened at grounds like Bournemouth when they went 2-3 nil up, looked comfortable, and then inexplicably fell apart and lost 4-3, with Klopp standing there on the touchline with this haunted smirk.
Emery’s problem is the change of formation. If he had stuck to one formation, the players would have known exactly what to do after a couple of games but when your position and shapes changes every game, you tend to get lost very often.
Spurs the cunts that they are deciding to throw away a 2 goal lead. Thank goodness i had Both teaks to score in that one
“Klopp for example will take an ill-suited/poor side, and might make them look half-decent in terms of gegenpressing for a while, and people will remark on his philosophy, but then around the hour mark they will blow up physically and just implode.“ Nobody disagrees this, but the part you’re continually overlooking is what can be taken from that particular scenario. That being Klopp affecting a change with greater potential “IF” so and so is addressed in terms of personnel. You’re talking out your walnut if 15 months into Emery’s tenure you’re able to name X or Y as being the… Read more »
Azed
“Ozil and Sokratis not in the party to Germany…Would be nice to know why.
Any player that hasn’t played competitive football for 3/4 months would not expect to play 3 times in a week.
So yes , ozil not travelling is understandsble…he will start v villa.
Sokratis is probably just being taken out of the firing line after the weekend debacle.
I do think it’s high time Mustafi is returned to the rotation.
Sokratis and David Luiz have proven that they aren’t any better than him and have the same penchant for high profile errors.
Charlie – If Klopp keeps that same level of personnel and they keep losing leads at Bournemouth, he’s getting sacked. If you’re not going forwards in football, you’re going backwards, and morale will slowly drop if those results – and the nature of them – keep occurring, and Klopp will approach the end of his cycle with even the positive aspects of his management wearing off, so Liverpool eventually won’t even start games off that well. So, without effective personnel, Klopp’s philosophy becomes superficial and ultimately flawed. “The flame that burns Twice as bright burns half as long.” That nicely… Read more »
Tottenham doing their best to brighten up the season for Arsenal supporters.
They’re away to Leicester this weekend, not an easy game at all.
Charles – What is Allegri’s philosophy?
I haven’t watched much of his teams to be honest. Do they play high line, low block, let the opposition play to a certain point before pressing, or press high up regardless?
Emery’s story at Arsenal will read like the story of the forgotten TU-144 plane. Russia spied and copied the most advanced commercial plane of his time the Concorde. However it flopped. The main reason were instability caused by design flaws and unreliability because of low quality pieces. The design flaw were due to their lack of understanding of the reason behind some of Concorde design choice. The low quality of the pieces was because they were not allowed to use the same pieces (NATO restricted their access to manufactured pieces that could be used for military planes). Emery at Arsenal… Read more »
Fernandinho is lining up as Captain and CB for MC.
Paulinho Idk what you think you’re unearthing there by continually stating players are a valuable currency to get right in a football clubs aims. That’s always been the case, and it’s a moving target as far as refining a squad goes with all the variables at stake like injuries, form, retirements et al. I don’t agree for a second that Klopp gets sacked if he’s given players of a certain level time after time with no improvement. That’s a recruiting issue, not a managerial one all said and done. Do you honestly think we’re not providing Emery the tools to… Read more »
“What’s eminently clear is that you can have the best group of players you like but if you haven’t a clue how to mould them into something as a collective you’ll achieve fuck all.”
Roberto Di Matteo proved otherwise.
“Sokratis is probably just being taken out of the firing line after the weekend debacle.”
Pierre
I’m ok with Sokratis being dropped because of the weekend, but what of Xhaka and Luiz?
Its only fair they are dropped also.
What a little player that Idrissa Gueye is. PSG a little steal there. He would have suited our midfield massively and Prem experience with Everton. So aggressive.
To think this is their second string front 3 PSG…:
Roberto Di Matteo proved otherwise.
Autobiography by players have since debunked that. The players were in charge. A triumvirate of John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba were telling him the composition of the team and were the de facto manager.
The following season when he tried to exert power, it all broke down and he was quickly removed.
“The players were in charge. A triumvirate of John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba were telling him the composition of the team and were the de facto manager.
The following season when he tried to exert power, it all broke down and he was quickly removed.”
You’re proving my point Valentin.
Real Madrid look wank, living off of individual moments something chronic
Paulinho
You’re doing your best to defend Emery, quite similar to your defence of the ill disciplined Ramsey.
Zidane struggling to impart his philosophy without Ronaldo it seems.
What a goal.
Pierre – Yet you’ve been craving some of that ‘ill-discipline’ since he left us, hence the rather laughable turnaround from wanting two deep-lying central midfielders to wanting a midfielder that makes runs forward off the ball.
Paulinho,
Not really.
Chelsea had players who had a clue.
Would you trust Xhaka, Luiz and Sokratis to come up with the right tactic?
Paulinho
Nothing’s changed, 4-2-3-1 is my favoured formation with 2 deep lying central midfielders protecting the defence .
Does Zidane have sauce or was all that success down to having full to the brim with sauce players? Genuine question
Madrid are seriously fortunate that PSG are missing their first choice forwards.
Very impressed with Marquinhos at CDM and the general shape and urgency with which PSG are defending.
Valentin – Have you just woke up?
Read again. I’m not arguing what you think I am. Charlie is.
Silvercock
Just because I choose to highlight a moronic poster and the shit I’ve had to read is my opinion. You don’t need to come charging in trying to be a hero.
Now do me a favour and fuck off back in to your box.
“Nothing’s changed, 4-2-3-1 is my favoured formation with 2 deep lying central midfielders protecting the defence ”
Is your nose getting more prominent in your peripheral vision?
Zinedine Zidane can be tactically astute, but he is not in the same class than the best.
His man management is not bad, but he can be prickly. At least he is willing to accept when he is in the wrong and can change his mind. For example Bale is now back in the fold.
However clearly he benefited massively from Real Madrid quality of the players. I am not sure how he would fare at a club with lower quality players.
Normski it’d be nice if you offered up an opinion once in a while. Just a thought I know pretty out there
Would be Di Maria with a brace against Real Madrid wouldn’t it?
Real and Zidane ought to be ashamed, 2-0 down to a PSG side without any of their first team front 3. Amazing how ordinary they look without Ronaldo.
The PSG midfield is playing well despite being very defensive. Marquinhos is class pretty sure he’d do a job in goal if you asked him to
Paulinho
The last thing I would “crave for ” is one of Arsenal’s 2 centre midfielders to” make runs forward off the ball.” .
Yeah Marquinhos has been outstanding. He’s quick across the ground too.
Not sluggish for a centre back at all.
Tuchel has set them out superbly today, attack in numbers.
By the way, that Muenir is a beast for a right back. Causing that mendy problems all day going forward.
Viper maybe you should take a day off
Aaron – welcome to Juventus………
Crazy game in Madrid
“Zidane struggling to impart his philosophy without Ronaldo it seems.”
Was saying similar earlier. Without Ronaldo he’s being exposed as just a very average manager. I read his win ratio is 48% currently.
Have to say Trippier has looked much better than he ever was for spurs since he moved to Madrid
Also I just noticed M’Bappe and Neymar wasn’t playing and they managed to turn Madrid over with ease.
Lokomotiv Moscow and Dinamo Zagreb making me money tonight, the lovely bastards.
Bernat and Gana Gueye were brilliant tonight
Real misses Luka Modrić. The replacement, James Rodríguez, is not of the same class. Also Hazard was wasted there for this game. Their midfielders couldn’t see his run. In Chelsea, every player was looking for him all the time. He doesn’t seem to have any chemistry with Benzema. In fact, all front there, Hazard, Benzema and Bale play by themselves.
MBappe, Neymar and Cavani were missing from the PSG team, however for some games not having Neymar and MBappe help them as it forces them to play more collectively.
Typical
Ramsey comes on in the last 5 minutes and Juventus concede.
Sarri will soon learn that bringing Ramsey on when protecting a lead is a massive mistake.
I will never the time Wenger brought him on towards the end when we beat Chelsea in the league cup semi a couple of years ago.
Ramsey spent the whole of his time on the pitch glory hunting instead of looking to protect our slender lead
*Never forget
Gueye and Veratti is a better central midfield combination than Real Madrid. Those two are a solid platform from which others can express themselves.
Angel Di Maria may have flopped at ManUtd, but he is a class player. Never had the temperament nor the stature to be the main star player, but he is always a solid 7~8 in big games.
Ángel Di María stepped up and played a good game.
Marquinhos is a brilliant player, probably the most underrated elite centre half in Europe right now.
Would only rate VVD ahead of him.
Bale’s a strange one, can look a one-man wrecking ball on his day but he’s pretty much anonymous a lot of the time too.
Hasn’t at all stepped up to the plate since Ronaldo left, quite the opposite.
This is the Real Madrid that struggle to beat midtable/lower end Spanish teams right.
Kalidou Koulibaly played a good game yesterday. Stopped Salah cold. He was better than VVD in that game.
Two under-rated midfielders got on the scoresheet in the Atleti-Juve match.
Maituidi and Hector Herrera.
Hector Herrera was available on a free in the summer. A leader.
Herrera was a great pick-up for Atleti. He’s right up Simeone’s street too.
Koulibaly is an awesome defender 90% of the time. He does have a few mares though.
WE, I think Bale really struggles at RM, especially with the constant booing and manager hate. It must be difficult to get yourself motivated.
Koulibaly is very good, he’s a little error-prone but he’s got all of the athletic ingredients that you’d look for in a CB especially for the PL. Really powerful and fast and great in the air.
Pretty good on the ball too if not quite VVD calibre.
‘Koulibaly is an awesome defender 90% of the time. He does have a few mares though.’ Couldn’t have said it better myself, the Juventus 93rd min OG being a prime example. Yeah N5 I don’t think that Bale at all relishes the antagonist role like Ronaldo does, criticism and adversity fuel Ronnie whereas Bale is one that needs to be loved and appreciated, like he is for Wales and was at Spurs under ‘Arry and AVB. Zidane has already made it clear that he’s not sold on him and the Real fans have made no secret of it either, wankers… Read more »
The only weakness that Koulibaly has is the fact that he is not a ball player central defender.
He could not replace Aymeric Laporte in ManCity team.
He is a very good no non-sense defender. He needs to be associated with somebody who compliment him.